By Emmanuel Nyatsikor
Ho, July 31, GNA – Reverend Dr Cyril Fayose, General Secretary, Christian Council of Ghana – Accra on Wednesday rejected allegations that he caused financial loss to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Ghana (EPCG) during his term of office as President of the EPCG University.
He said his destructors alleged that he burdened the EPCG with debt through a loan contracted by the University which he allegedly used to increase management and staff salaries and that disqualified him from holding any office in the Church.
Rev Dr Fayose who is also the Director of the National Counselling Centre, Adenta, said he was being mudsling with the allegations because he showed interest to contest for the post of Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church during the forthcoming General Assembly of the Church in Ho in August, this year.
This was contained in a statement released by Rev Dr Fayose in Ho and copied to the Ghana News Agency.
“These allegations have been made without affording me the opportunity to present my side of the story,” he said.
Rev Dr Fayose noted that a fair assessment required an appreciation of the institutional challenges he inherited, the regulatory environment within which he operated, and the governance structures that approved and supervised the decisions taken.
He said he assumed office as the second President of the University in October 2011, succeeding the founding President, Mr Walter Blege.
The General Secretary, who is also a Minister of the EPCG noted that when he assumed office, the University was already servicing a loan facility from GCB Bank that had been contracted to renovate the campus near the EP Press.
He continued that in 22012; the school received a formal warning from the National Accreditation Board (NAB) expressing serious concern about the University’s inadequate infrastructure and warned that failure to improve the facilities could lead to loss of institutional accreditation.
Rev Dr Fayose explained that the Board made it clear that student fees could not be used to finance the required infrastructure.
“Faced with this regulatory requirement, the University and the Church acted promptly under the leadership of Rt Rev Francis Amenu, the then Moderator of the Church and released the Ho Kpodzi land for the construction of the lecture complex and also made available lands at Akoefe, Ve Koloenu and Todome.
“These were deliberate Institutional decisions at preserving the future of the University as I inherited serious infrastructure deficits,” he stated.
Rev Dr Fayose said when he became President of the University, it did not possess adequate infrastructure for a growing tertiary institution, and the operational inefficiencies fell short of the standards expected of an accredited University.
He noted that these challenges were not created during his administration as they existed long before he assumed office and represented one of the greatest threats to the University’s future.
The General Secretary said against this background a decision was taken to secure a loan of approximately GHc2 million to construct a modern lecture hall complex.
“This was not a project undertaken for prestige or personal recognition but a strategic intervention to address an immediate institutional crisis and satisfy accreditation requirements,” he stated.
Rev Dr Fayose said Defiat Company which constructed the lecture hall complex was paid on submission of certificate of work done and that it was only the final stages of work that was not paid and the Church took over adding “it is not true that the Company pre-financed the whole project.”
He noted that at the time the loan was contracted, the University possessed the financial capacity to service the facility as student enrollment was healthy, cash flow projections were favourable and the Church guaranteed the loan through the proposed one Ghana cedi per member per month.
“It is important to place on record that none of the borrowed funds was used to pay staff salaries or finance recurrent expenditure as every cedi was invested in capital infrastructure that remains the property of the University and Church,” Rev Dr Fayose stated.
He said the University’s repayment projections were later undermined by major external developments that could not presumably have been foreseen, key among them the unforeseen conversion of the Ho Polytechnic into a Technical University and several public Universities establishing distance learning centres in Ho.
The General Secretary noted that these developments resulted in a sharp decline in enrollment and revenue, thereby affecting the University’s ability to service the loan as originally projected.
He stated that the decision to obtain the loan was approved and supervised by the University Council whilst the Church executed the necessary guarantees in support of the facility.
“To attribute sole responsibility to the President ignores the collective decision-making processes that govern Tertiary institutions,” he said.
The General Secretary stated that his appointment to the position of President of the Church’s University reflected the confidence the Church has in his integrity, leadership, and commitment to service.
He intimated that throughout his tenure of office there has never been any evidence that he personally benefitted from the loan or acted dishonestly, fraudulently, or recklessly.
“In the absence of fraud, dishonesty, personal gain, recklessness or misuse of funds, there is no fair or reasonable basis for accusing me of causing financial loss to the Church.
“I therefore respectfully reject these allegations, be judged fairly, objectively and within the full context of the circumstances under which they were taken,” Rev Dr Fayose stated.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Linda Asante Agyei